The present invention relates to a supporting framework of a rear cover, which may be pivoted up about a front transverse axis and a rear transverse axis, of a rear compartment in a bodywork of a passenger vehicle having a fold-away roof or roof part, the rear compartment being used for accommodating a roof or roof part and luggage, having a frame which is U-shaped in plan view and has a central part orientated in the transverse direction and arranged on the rear of the bodywork, and U-limbs which may be pivoted about the rear transverse axis, and on the U-limbs, rear-cover supporting parts which may be pivoted about the front transverse axis.
A supporting framework is described in German Published Patent Application No. 195 16 877, which provides the possibility, firstly, of opening the rear cover by pivoting it about the rear transverse axis in order to deposit the fold-away roof part or roof in the compartment below the rear cover. Secondly, the rear cover may be pivoted up about the front transverse axis in order to load the rear compartment in the bodywork with luggage.
According to German Published Patent Application No. 195 16 877, the central part of the U-shaped frame is mounted directly on joints fixed on the bodywork, in the vicinity of the upper edge of a rear bumper of the bodywork, such that the central part may pivot about the rear pivot axis. This ensures that the U-shaped frame is secured in a structurally simple and stable manner. However, a certain limitation on the freedom of the bodywork design has to be accepted.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a supporting framework which allows more extensive clearances in the configuration of the bodywork.
The above and other beneficial objects of the present invention are achieved by providing a supporting framework with a lifting/tilting guide which retains the frame and lifts up first when the rear flap is pivoted up about the rear transverse axis and during corresponding pivoting of the U-limbs.
The present invention is based on the general concept of changing the kinematic relations of the supporting framework when pivoting the rear flap about the rear transverse axis such that the rear flap executes an essentially translatory lifting movement causing the gap between the edge of the rear flap and adjacent, stationary parts of the bodywork to be widened. This produces more clearance which is available for the following pivoting movement and the adjacent, stationary bodywork does not have to be taken into consideration as an interfering contour during the tilting movement. Significantly greater freedom is therefore offered both with regard to the configuration of the rear flap and with regard to the configuration of the adjacent, stationary bodywork parts.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the lifting/tilting guide may be configured as a four-bar linkage system having two hinge pins parallel to the transverse axes, on a stationary part of the bodywork, and two hinge pins parallel thereto, on a part fixed on the frame or on the frame, a first straight line passing, in axial view, through the hinge pins on the bodywork and a second straight line passing through the hinge pins on the frame forming an upwardly open angle, a first link being arranged between the upper hinge pins and a second link, which is shorter than the first link, being arranged between the lower hinge pins. It is possible for an adjusting assembly to be used to subject the frame to a torque with respect to the two hinge pins on the frame.
A hinge system of this type provides the possibility of an arrangement in which, in the initial or rest position of the frame, the hinge pins on the frame are arranged approximately perpendicularly one above the other and lower than the corresponding pins on the bodywork, and the links may accordingly execute a comparatively large pivoting lift without a considerable tilting movement of the frame, the frame then executing a significant lifting movement during the abovementioned pivoting lift. If, during the lifting/tilting movement, the adjusting assembly exerts, on the frame, a torque orientated in the pivoting direction of the links, the abovementioned lifting movement is inevitably executed, the lifting movement increasingly being combined with a certain pivoting movement, in which the two links execute a pivoting movement acting in the same direction until the lower link reaches a position in which the lower hinge pin on the bodywork and the two hinge pins on the frame are on a straight line, in axial view. On further actuation of the adjusting assembly, the links then pivot in an opposed manner to each other, with the consequence that hardly any further pivoting movement of the frame takes place and, instead, an increased tilting movement occurs.
To allow for the links to be arranged in a common plane and for the four-bar linkage system to be configured with a small width in the axial direction of the hinge pins, provision may be made for the upper link to be configured as an angled lever having a downwardly open angle opening or as a curved lever having a downwardly directed concave side. This enables the lower hinge pin on the frame to cross the connecting line between the upper hinge pin on the body and the upper hinge pin on the frame, in the manner desired for a distinctive tilting lift of the frame.
With regard to useful compartments which are as large as possible and are as free from interfering contours as possible in the rear compartment in the bodywork, the U-limbs of the frame have, in side view of the bodywork, an L-shape which may closely conform to the rear flap, which is L-shaped in side view of the bodywork.
The general concept of arranging essential structural parts of the supporting framework closely adjacent to the edge of the closed rear flap is realized here, with the result that, within the rear compartment below the U-limbs, readily useable compartments are still available in the vicinity of the side walls of the bodywork. For example, one or two golf bags orientated approximately in the direction of the transverse axis of the bodywork may be pushed into these compartments.